hold the line
by ASongInMyHead
Summary: After Barda, Jasmine and Doom are taken from the forge, they struggle with the realization that they might not make it out alive.


"No! No! _No!"_

Jasmine's cries were the only thing that pierced the darkness. A crusty and stinking blindfold had been tied horribly tight around Barda's face, but still he turned his head toward the sound of his friend. They had been walking for some time, but a Grey Guard grabbed him roughly by his shoulders to hold him still. His hands were unbound, a mocking gesture: it would have been impossible to escape their captors. Without warning, the blindfold was ripped from his face, and he blinked in the exposed light. They had been brought to the palace's dungeon, and Jasmine's captor was trying to shove her into a cell. She pushed her arms against the doorframe, desperate to avoid being trapped in the cage-like room. After a brief struggle, she was overpowered and forced inside. She fell to the ground in a heap, and dragged herself to a corner as Barda was pushed in behind her. Doom, half-conscious, was tossed limply in last. The Grey Guards swarmed them, clasping their ankles with heavy chains that were hooked into the floor.

"We will be back, scum!" One of the Guards called as they departed. The door was slammed shut, and they were alone.

"Are you alright?" Barda stumbled over to Jasmine, Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and she hugged her knees to her chest.

"I am fine," she lied blatantly, gingerly touching the welt on her cheek. A Grey Guard had struck her for biting him at the forge. "And you?"

"Never better," he said dully, leaning against the hard, cold stone. His knee throbbed from a kick from a Guard's heavy boot.

The torches in the hall cast the faintest illumination through a tiny slit in the door. Ghastly shadows flickered across the little room. Filli had hidden under Jasmine's coat during the fray, but he poked his nose out. She opened her eyes and stroked him softly; trying to sooth him through her own anxiety.

"I will never let anything happen to you, dear heart. I promise."

Both Barda and Jasmine jumped at the sound of Doom's voice. He had spoken nonsensically on the march from the forge, alternately telling the guards to unhand his wife and asking where Jasmine was, but he had been silent since they had entered the palace.

"Oh, I cannot bear this," Jasmine moaned through gritted teeth. "He is driving me mad."

Barda looked over at Doom, who was lying on his side with his eyes closed. The blood that had run down the side of his head was beginning to dry. He looked like a different man than the hardened one that they knew. Jasmine covered her face with her hands and Barda pretended not to notice as she cried. He pulled at his chains half-heartedly. After a moment, Jasmine rubbed at her eyes and breathed deeply, grounding herself.

"Are you not happy, now that you have reunited with your father?" Barda questioned, gently.

"Should I be?" Jasmine croaked. "What does that mean anymore? He has hated me since we met at Tom's shop. And I… I do not think I like him much more."

Barda recalled Doom's blood glistening on Jasmine's dagger, the fury on their faces in the Arena, and all of their icy interactions since. "Perhaps you are not on the best of terms," Barda admitted, awkwardly, turning away from the wall. "But, Jasmine, he clearly loved you when he was Endon-"

"Do not call him that!" Jasmine interrupted ferociously. Filli jumped out of her shirt and scrambled up the sloping wall.

"Why not?"

"Because— whatever you and Lief seem to believe— Doom is no king, and I am certainly no princess."

"Jasmine," Barda said impatiently "You have Endon's rhyme on paper. From what Doom has said, your mother was Sharn. The Belt-"

"The Belt did not shine for me," she hissed.

"Perhaps if you were just to believe in—"

"Fine. What does it mean, then?" she challenged, rising to her feet with a squeak of protest from Filli. "Either I am not the heir, and we have truly failed. Or I am, and the Belt will not claim me. Which do you think is worse? Because I do not know."

Barda stared at her for a long moment. "I suppose it does not matter any longer. All that we can do now is hope that Lief will be able to keep himself alive."

"Yes, he must," Jasmine said softly. She walked toward the door; the length of her chain allowed her to press her eyes against the slit.

"Perhaps," Barda continued, "he will even be able to find Jarred and Anna—"

"Jarred and Anna," Doom repeated, his eyelids fluttering. Barda and Jasmine turned to him, but he did not elaborate.

"If he does," Barda knew his hope was foolish, yet he clung to it. "I pray they will be able to find a way out of the city."

"I pray he does not do anything stupid," Jasmine pressed her face back against the door. "Barda, I see something."

"What? What is it?"

"Far down the hall. Two Grey Guards. And I think they have someone with them. Yes… a woman. I think she is handcuffed."

"What are they doing?" Barda asked hurriedly. He stumbled to his feet, ignoring a stab of pain from his knee.

"Opening another cell… they are forcing a man out." Jasmine winced. "He is slower, he is limping, so they hit him. They have turned the corner, I cannot see them anymore—"

Barda's heart pounded in his chest as his last hopes fled. "That must be Jarred and Anna! They are taking them away. Damn it."

He punched the wall, and white-hot pain spread up his arm as the skin of his knuckles split against the stone. Devastated, Barda looked at Jasmine, who had moved away from the door. She was staring intently at the opposite wall, deep in thought while Filli chattered something in her ear. She dropped to the floor and began to tear at the rotting straw that carpeted the floor. When she had reached the floor underneath, she felt along the stones, searching for something.

"What are you doing?" He asked her dully.

"It is not yet time to lose hope," she told him cryptically, without taking her eyes off of her work.

"What does that mean?"

She paid him no heed, scrubbing her palms across the filthy floor. Finally, she gasped.

"I think your chain will let you reach. Lift this out, Barda," she instructed, pointing at a protruding stone under her hands. "I shall try to awaken my father."

As she hurried towards Doom, Barda grabbed her by the wrist. Her chain clattered as she was halted, and his blood dripped across her wrist. "Tell me what you are planning," he growled. "You have just told me that my friends are being led off to die. If there ever was a time to lose hope, it surely is now."

"Filli tells me that there is no other cell on the other side of ours," Jasmine said, her eyes were red-rimmed but still shone. "Luckily for us, he says the stones have begun to come loose from their bindings with age."

Barda gave her a sad smile, and gently dropped her wrist. "The dungeons are below ground. Even if we could get the stones away, we would still be trapped by the earth."

"We are not fully underground," Jasmine told him eagerly. "There must have been a high window here once, it must have been filled in. A small space is dug out on the other side. And I have found a loose stone in the floor."

Barda stared at her in amazement and could not help but grin. He knelt and lifted up the stone with ease. "So, we use this to break the wall?"

"Exactly."

"Stand back," Barda lifted the heavy stone above his head and heaved it at the wall. It hit the target with a loud crack, and fell to the ground with a cloud of dust and an even louder smash. Jasmine scurried to the slit in the door, and let out a small cry of triumph when she confirmed that no one had heard. She went over to her father and hesitantly tried to shake him awake. Barda lifted the stone and repeated his task.

"Jasmine?" Doom said drowsily, as he started to get up.

"Careful, Father," Barda heard her sooth, remarkably gently. "We may have a way out."

The second hit had created a small crack. Jasmine had been right: the wall had been paved differently at the top. Barda picked up the stone and threw it again. A small portion of the paved window gave way and tumbled to the floor. Triumphantly, he looked at Jasmine to check if she had seen, but she was not looking at him. She was crouched over Doom, but stared intently at the door.

"What is wrong?" He asked.

"Someone is coming," she whispered hoarsely.

After a moment, Barda heard the pounding of heavy feet moving toward them with great speed. The door burst open violently, and a pod of Grey Guards poured inside. Jasmine clawed at them wildly as she was pulled from her father. One Guard pinned her to the ground, while another handcuffed her hands behind her back. Doom was slowly becoming aware of his surroundings, but was too weak to put up much of a resistance. Barda managed to deliver a swift blow across a Guard's face, before his hands were bound. They were released from their binds on the floor, but their handcuffs were linked together with a heavy chain, and cloth bags were pulled over their heads.

"This is incredible," a Guard said, his words muffled by the Barda's head covering. "We have got the three!"

"Are you sure?" another asked sceptically. "I thought there was supposed to be a boy, the same age as the girl."

"No," said a third. Barda's heart swelled: Lief had not yet been caught. Barda was at the front of the line, and felt heavy hands shove him forward. "We told Fallow we had the three. We will bring him these ones. He might be too busy with the other traitors, and the failure of that stupid Ol, to notice if one of them looks different."

"Imagine what will happen to these three!" The Guard closest to Barda said gleefully, as they were marched down the hall. "The others are getting double branding and death, and for much lesser crimes. No doubt Fallow has a show planned."

Barda felt a tug on his chain as he walked. He gritted his teeth, furious that he was being so humiliated on this march to his torture and death. But two more tugs followed, and he softened as he realized that Jasmine, tied directly behind him, was reaching out in the only way she could. He tugged back. At the very least, they would not die alone.

 _Good luck, Lief, my friend._ Barda thought as they were marched upstairs. _You will need it._

* * *

 _This obviously takes place during the end of 'Return to Del' after they'd been captured. This is a rewrite of a piece I wrote sometime between 2010 and 2012, originally titled 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place'. Thanks for reading!_


End file.
